Hi
I want to experiment with switching to different instruments while playing a certain midi part. I cant find the way to achieve this in Cubase. Basically what I'm looking for is some kind of automation that can change the VSTi that currently plays.
Help anyone?
Thanks.

Assign multiple synths to different tracks, each with a unique MIDI channel. You will need to set up a MIDI transformer effect on each track to delete all notes that do not match the desired channel for the track.

dizbmm wrote:HiI want to experiment with switching to different instruments while playing a certain midi part. I cant find the way to achieve this in Cubase. Basically what I'm looking for is some kind of automation that can change the VSTi that currently plays.Help anyone?Thanks.

Very simple: Insert a program-change-event at the beginning of the new midi-part.

Additionally you have to enable the track so that it "receives" program-change-events.

Another way to do this would be to use a MIDI FX note splitter to send different octave ranges to synths on separate tracks. Assuming a 4 octave keyboard, you can now play 4 synths (transposed appropriately) using a different section of the keyboard.

dizbmm wrote:HiI want to experiment with switching to different instruments while playing a certain midi part. I cant find the way to achieve this in Cubase. Basically what I'm looking for is some kind of automation that can change the VSTi that currently plays.Help anyone?Thanks.

Very simple: Insert a program-change-event at the beginning of the new midi-part.

Additionally you have to enable the track so that it "receives" program-change-events.

I think that program change is the way to go here. But I'm not sure how to use it. Could you give me a hint on how to use it? I see "Program change" in automation of the midi part (cubase 5), but it doesn't seem to change anything. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?

Plus, can it switch between instruments? Or just between different presets of same instrument?
Thanks!

dizbmm wrote:I think that program change is the way to go here. But I'm not sure how to use it. Could you give me a hint on how to use it? I see "Program change" in automation of the midi part (cubase 5), but it doesn't seem to change anything. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?

Plus, can it switch between instruments? Or just between different presets of same instrument?Thanks!

Hi,

First: Program-changes do change presets of (multitimbral) instruments. Usually every preset of a slot of a sampler (Kontakt, Halion, Shortcut etc.) is an "instrument"! Thus by activating a program-change-event you change the preset - and with that you also change the instrument.

That of course means: The assignment of your VSTi to a track is fix. You can't change that while a song is running by a program-change or any automation. You can only change presets of course (and in sample-language a preset is an instrument - yeah, it's the definition of the term).

Insert program-changes: Open the list-editor of a midi-part, go into "edit-mode" and choose "program-change" - that easy.

First: Program-changes do change presets of (multitimbral) instruments. Usually every preset of a slot of a sampler (Kontakt, Halion, Shortcut etc.) is an "instrument"! Thus by activating a program-change-event you change the preset - and with that you also change the instrument.

That of course means: The assignment of your VSTi to a track is fix. You can't change that while a song is running by a program-change or any automation. You can only change presets of course (and in sample-language a preset is an instrument - yeah, it's the definition of the term).

Insert program-changes: Open the list-editor of a midi-part, go into "edit-mode" and choose "program-change" - that easy.

Thanks for your answer enroe

It doesn't seem possible in Halion or Kontakt, but it does seem to work for some random synths.

Not sure what's the consistency here... Anyone knows why it works for some VSTi and doesn't work for others?

dizbmm wrote:It doesn't seem possible in Halion or Kontakt, but it does seem to work for some random synths.

Not sure what's the consistency here... Anyone knows why it works for some VSTi and doesn't work for others?

Program Change has to be explicitly supported by the target instrument in order for it to work. Also, some synths have different requirements (some break their presets into 'banks', so you have to specify both a bank and a preset number).

Say you've got a hardware synth that can store a maximum of 256 patches, broken up into two banks. (A common setup in the 80s.) Addressing patches via MIDI is super easy.

But then look at a modern soft synth, that doesn't have any concept of a finite patch bank at all, but rather a tagged database of hundreds, or even thousands of presets. As a result, some softynths don't respond to program changes at all, while others might have a "favorites" concept where you can assign specific presets to virtual slots that will correspond to a standard MIDI program change. So, it really depends on the synth... modern hardware synths have varying levels of program change support as well.

But in your initial post you ask this:

dizbmm wrote: Basically what I'm looking for is some kind of automation that can change the VSTi that currently plays.

Are you really looking for a way to change the entire plugin that you're playing? (In which case you might be able to automate plugin disable/enable or maybe even channel change) Or is changing programs within a single plugin sufficient?

Also, don't overlook synths like FM8 and Alchemy where you can have multiple patches or sound sources loaded and morph between them in real time.